EnCor Biotechnology is a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

company that manufactures monoclonal and

polyclonal antibodies Polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) are antibodies that are secreted by different B cell lineages within the body (whereas monoclonal antibodies come from a single cell lineage). They are a collection of immunoglobulin molecules that react against ...

with a focus on reagents targeting neural proteins. EnCor was founded in 1999 as a spin-off from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

by Gerry Shaw, a British scientist initially a professor in th
Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida
and now professor emeritus. The company is based in Gainesville, Florida and markets high quality and very well characterized antibody

reagents In chemistry, a reagent ( ) or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms ''reactant'' and ''reagent'' are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a ...

at reasonable prices.

History

During his early career at the University of Florida in the 1990s certain of his antibodies made originally for research purposes were licensed to outside companies for sale. Some of these are still today sold by vendors such as Cell Signaling Technology, which however charges what Dr. Shaw regards as unreasonably high prices for them. EnCor Biotechnology was therefore formed at the end of 1999 initially to market antibody

made in Dr. Shaw's research laboratory at more reasonable prices. In late 2001 EnCor rented lab space at the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, a facility dedicated to commercialization of intellectual property generated in the University of Florida. Following this move the EnCor laboratory produced an increasing number of novel antibodies which were made, characterized, documented, manufactured and subjected to rigorous quality control. The company quickly therefore increased the number of reagents available for sale and soon become profitable and, in 2006, relocated to new premises in Gainesville. The Gainesville facility has now expanded to three times the original size. Neuron in tissue culture

EnCor has always collaborated with basic scientists and clinicians to produce articles in peer reviewed scientific publications focused on the examination of various plasma, serum and CSF biomarkers of nervous system damage and degeneration. One of these is the

phosphorylated In chemistry, phosphorylation is the attachment of a phosphate group to a molecule or an ion. This process and its inverse, dephosphorylation, are common in biology and could be driven by natural selection. Text was copied from this source, wh ...

axonal An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis), or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see spelling differences), is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in vertebrates, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action po ...

form of the major

neurofilament Neurofilaments (NF) are classed as type IV intermediate filaments found in the cytoplasm of neurons. They are protein polymers measuring 10 nm in diameter and many micrometers in length. Together with microtubules (~25 nm) and mi ...

protein heavy chain protein which has the

HGNC The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) is a committee of the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) that sets the standards for human gene nomenclature. The HGNC approves a ''unique'' and ''meaningful'' name for every known human gene, based on a q ...

name

NEFH Neurofilament, heavy polypeptide (NEFH) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''NEFH'' gene. It is the gene for a heavy protein subunit that is combined with medium and light subunits to make neurofilaments, which form the framework for ne ...

, though is usually referred to as pNF-H in the scientific literature. Two further studies describe novel EnCor assays for UCHL1 and

alpha-synuclein Alpha-synuclein is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the ''SNCA'' gene. Alpha-synuclein is a neuronal protein that regulates synaptic vesicle trafficking and subsequent neurotransmitter release. It is abundant in the brain, while smaller a ...

, two major brain proteins implicated in the development of

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

and other neurological diseases. In 2022 EnCor, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Florida described a novel class of antibodies to neurofilament light chain with the HGNC name NEFL, although the protein is usually referred to as NF-L. Surprisingly, one class of these antibodies bind epitopes hidden in healthy neurons and their processes but which are revealed on degeneration. Another class of antibody to neurofilament NF-L was shown to bind only neurofilaments in healthy neurons and their processes but failed to recognize degenerating and degenerated neurons and processes. A peer-reviewed and slightly enlarged report on this work was accepted for publication in the journal Brain Communications. The antibodies degeneration specific antibodies have been dubbe
"DegenoTag"
reagents and should have wide utility for researchers on neurodegeneration. By 2022, the EnCor product line had increased to over 250 items, the antibodies mostly being used for research purposes, with a particular focus on

immunocytochemistry Immunocytochemistry (ICC) is a common laboratory technique that is used to anatomically visualize the localization of a specific protein or antigen in cells by use of a specific primary antibody that binds to it. The primary antibody allows visu ...

and

western blotting The western blot (sometimes called the protein immunoblot), or western blotting, is a widely used analytical technique in molecular biology and immunogenetics to detect specific proteins in a sample of tissue homogenate or extract. Besides detect ...

, though many are also utilized for

, immunoprecipitation and

ELISA The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay uses a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presen ...

. Some have become useful for diagnostic histopathology and for monitoring the levels of protein

biomarkers In biomedical contexts, a biomarker, or biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition. Biomarkers are often measured and evaluated using blood, urine, or soft tissues to examine normal biological processes, pa ...

, of research and potential clinical utility. EnCor supplies reagents to research labs and other reagent companies such as

Abcam Abcam is a producer, distributor and seller of protein research tools. History The company was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Milner with co-founders professor Tony Kouzarides and David Cleevely, with the idea of making it easier for research scie ...

, BioLegend,

Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is an American supplier of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, and software services. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Thermo Fisher was formed through the merger of Thermo Electron and Fisher Sc ...

, EMD Millipore, Bio-Techne and many others. EnCor is well known for the quality of its cell, tissue and western blotting images, many of which have been made available on Wikipedia Commons and widely used in books, articles, posters, for teaching, advertising and many other purposes, se

Key EnCor Publications

* * *

References

Article about University of Florida start up companies from Business Week, 2007

Gainesville Sun article about one of EnCor's discoveries, 2005

Youtube video about a recent EnCor discovery, 2023

External links

* {{Official website Biotechnology companies of the United States Companies based in Gainesville, Florida Biotechnology companies established in 1999 Research support companies 1999 establishments in Florida